Drier for printed webs



Oct. 6, 1959 KANE DRIER FOR PRINTED WEBS Filed March 5, 195'? bll li.

INVENTOR.

$ r o O. Fe-n42.

' r 2,907,119 DRIER FOR PRINTED 'wnns Gideon Kane, Green Bay, Wis.;Sylvena Kane administratrix of said Gideon Kane, deceased ApplicationMarch 5, 1957, Serial No. 644,165

2 Claims. (Cl. 34-160) The invention relates to web type printingpresses and more particularly to a drying assembly for drying theprinted Web of paper or other flexible material as it proceeds throughthe press after being printed.

The main object of the invention is to provide a printed web drierhaving a housing provided with a heated air inlet chamber and an exhaustair chamber, the inlet chamber having a narrow slit or nozzle fordirecting heated air from the inlet chamber against the printed surfaceof the web and the exhaust air chamber having an elongated inletopening, the inlet chamber being connected with a forced air supply ofheated air and the exhaust air chamber preferably being connected to apower operated exhauster or suction fan.

The invention further consists in the several features hereinafterdescribed and more particularly defined by claims at the conclusionhereof.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a view of a pair of drier units connected in circuit withheated air supply and exhaust apparatus;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged front elevation view of a drier unit;

Fig. 3 is an end elevation view of the drier unit shown in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a detailed vertical sectional view taken on the line 44 ofFig. 2 as it is disposed relative to the printed web to be dried.

Referring to the drawings, the drier unit includes a sheet metal housing5 having an inclined partition 6 therein dividing it into a heated airchamber 7 and an exhaust air chamber 8. The housing 5 is longer than itis high and may have a rectangular form, though other forms may be usedwithout departing from the invention. The partition 6 is formed by apair of thin metal sheets 9 and 10 constructed and arranged as shown inFig. 4 and having mounted between a board or block of suitable heatinsulating material I. Adjacent the upper end of partition 6, the frontwall of the housing is formed to provide a slit or nozzle opening 11.One side of this opening is formed by a reversely bent front side of thehousing to provide a lengthwise extending channel 12. At the other sideof the opening 11 a lengthwise extending metal plate 13 is providedhaving a hooked end 14, thatengages over the upper end of a front wallextension 15 of the sheet 9, said plate extending down alongside thissheet and terminating in a flanged air deflector or guide edge 16extending outwardly from the slit 11 in alinement with the inclinedportion of the sheet 9. The width of the slit has been exaggerated inFig. 4 and in practice is about one-sixteenth to one-eighth of an inchwide. The housing has a lengthwise extending exhaust slot or opening 17formed at one edge by parts previously described and the upper flangereinforced edge 18 of the front face of the housing. The width of theopening 17 is several times greater than the width of opening 11, beingin practice from six to twelve times greater.

The opening 11 is long enough to accommodate the widest printed webs metwith in practice, and for lesser ice widths of webs one or more blockingmembers 19 may be used. Each of these members has a tongue portion 20adapted to engage inthe-channel 12, an obturating portion 21 and aflange portion 22 that is adapted to engage over the 'outer edge of. theguide edge 16, whereby each blocking member is slidably mounted on thefront face of the housing to adjustably determine the effective lengthof the opening 11. The nozzle opening 11 is preferably directed upwardlyagainst the downwardly moving printed web W, the housing being suitablysupported relative to the printing press for this purpose.

One end of the housing is provided with a tubular air inlet pipe fitting23 and a similar exhaust air outlet fitting 24 which in practice areeach connected by suitably flexible pipes (not shown) to the air supplyand exhaust apparatus.

As shown in Fig. 1, the air inlet to the chamber 7 is connected in eachinstance by a pipe 25 to a supply pipe 26 and the exhaust air outlet tochamber 8 by a pipe 27 that connects with a regenerator housing 28. Aheater H of any suitable construction, using gas, oil, coal orelectricity as the heating medium, is connected with the pipe 26 andwith a pipe 29 supplied with air from a motor driven blower B. Thehousing 28 has an exhaust pipe 30 that connects with a motor drivenexhaust fan With the above construction, air from the blower B isdelivered under blower pressure to the heater H, and this heated airthen passes through pipe 26 and pipes 25 to the air chambers 9 of thedrier indicated in Fig. l, and as shown in connection with one of thedrier units, this air is forced out of the chamber 9 through the nozzle11 against the web 10 in a direction opposite to the movement of saidweb to dry the same, and then through the action of the fan F, aftertraveling upwardly along the web, is drawn into the opening 17 of thechamber 8 and through the pipes 27 into the housing 28 and out throughthepipe 30 past the fan to atmosphere. The inlet air may be quite highlyheated in the heater, for example, the air issuing from the nozzle 11may be at a temperature of 450 P. so that when this highly heated airstrikes the web and its moisture carrying ingredients, such as printedink, the web will be quickly dried and consequently, the web may be runat a high speed without danger of smudging, so that greater productionof printed material may be had as compared to the usual printingpresses. The capacity of the exhaust fan is twice that of the blowerdelivery so that all fumes in' separate compartments arranged injuxtaposed position without departing from the invention.

I desire it to be understood that this invention is not to be limited toany particular form or arrangement of parts except in so far as suchlimitations are included in the claims.

What I claim as my invention is:

l. Drying apparatus for a freshly printed traveling web comprising anelongated housing having a front and a back wall, and a transverselyextending partition extending upwardly from the back wall of saidhousing to the front wall thereof and dividing said housing into a lowerinlet compartment and an upper outlet compartment, means for supplyingsaid inlet compartment with heated air under pressure, means forexhausting air from said outlet compartment, said inlet compartmenthaving a transversely disposed nozzle outlet coextensive with the web tobe dried for directing heated air against and along the web in adirection opposed to its movement, a flange extending along the frontwall of the housing and disposed along a transverse edge of the nozzleoutlet in alignment with the plane of the lc-wer surface of saidpartition, said outlet compartment having an inlet in the front wall ofthe housing extending transversely of the web and of greater area thanthe nozzle for withdrawing air from the region .where it passes alongthe web rearwardly ofrsaid nozzle. 7 v

2. Drying apparatus as defined in claim: 1, said apparatus furthercomprising a transversely extending plate depending from said front Wallatone edge of the inlet forming an outwardly extending inclined outerguide edge aligned with the lower surface of said partition.

References Cited in the file of this patent to said outlet compartmentand having a flanged edge 10 2,666,994

UNITED STATES PATENTS Brunk June 29, 1926 Fuykers Nov. 26, 1935 RodenNov. 13, 1951 'Dungler Jan. 26, 1954

